ACT I
EXT. -A Fairy Tale Garden- Day
The garden rests behind an old cottage. No noise comes from inside. The bright colors and rounded shapes give the impression of a storybook location rather than anything that could actually exist. There's a bloody millstone half-embedded into the ground on one side. On the other, a massive Juniper tree looms over the scene like a gravestone. On its roots sits the BOY.
BOY is based on the Grimm's Brother tale "The Juniper Tree". He is red as blood and white as snow. He has little fat on his body as almost all were replaced by feathers. These are especially prominent on his stomach and thighs, and one arm has been replaced by a wing. He's covered in stitches, some of which are made of feathers. He wears a silken handkerchief around his neck. The BOY has no name, and his demeanor is grim, even as he sings sweetly.
MIAO SHAN is from the miracle tale about the mortal origins of the Bodhisattva, Guanyin. She isn't much older than BOY. Perhaps mid-20s at most. She has neither arms nor eyes. Her Buddhist monk robes conceal the lack of arms to some degree but her eyes are covered in blood. Despite this MIAO SHAN walks gracefully and seems to see more than she lets on.
Boy:
(singing)
My Mother, she killed me
My Father, he ate me
My Sister, Marely
Buried my bone's beneath
The Juniper tree-
Enter MIAO SHAN singing
Miao Shan:
(Singing)
Yet, what a beautiful bird you are.
Boy:
You've heard my song already?
Miao Shan:
The birds have carried your wonderful tune far and wide.
Boy:
Plagiarists. Every last one of them. I may have been a bird when I wrote it but it's still mine.
Well? I don't do encores for free. What will you give me?
Miao Shan:
The blessing of my company?
Boy:
Get out of here. I have plenty of company.
(Looks at the tree)
Miao Shan:
Leave? Already? But I came all this way and I don't even know your name.
Boy:
I don't have a name. Only my sister has a name and it changes with every retelling. Marley, Marlene, Marlinchen, Anne Marie.
Miao Shan:
Very well; brother of Marley, Marlene, Marlinchen or Anne Marie. I am Miao Shan. Or at least, in this aspect, I am Miao Shan. It's kinda confusing, but I guess you can say that I also change my name a lot.
(Bows)
Oh! Sorry. You shake hands here, right? I don't have hands. Uhh...foot?
(Raises one leg for BOY to shake.)
(He doesn't take it.)
So your mother killed you?
Boy:
Step-mother, technically.
Miao Shan:
Oh. That makes it a bit better actually.
Boy:
How so?
Miao Shan:
I don't know. Just less...emotionally poignant that way?
Did it hurt?
Boy:
You're asking me if it hurt when my step-mother killed me?
Miao Shan:
I just know it hurt for me, when my father killed me.
Boy:
Your father killed you?
Miao Shan:
Well, he hired an executioner to do it for him.
Boy:
Less emotionally poignant that way.
My step-mom wasn't like that. When I died, she was hovering over me like specter. I'm not sure she even planned it. One moment she was offering me an apple from an old metal chest full of the damn things. And then-
(Acts out reaching into a chest that slams on his neck)
Miao Shan:
I'm so sorry.
Boy:
(walks over to the millstone.)
Don't be. She got what was coming to her.
Did your dad eat you too? Or was it your mom?
Miao Shan:
No, no. It was my dad that ate me. My mom didn't really get involved all that much. She never stood up to my dad.
Although, there was one version of my story where I was away for many years, yet she recognized me. She kissed me on the cheeks and then, licked my empty eye-sockets. I'm still not sure why.
Boy:
Was she getting a taste for you?
Miao Shan:
What?
Boy:
(getting uncomfortably close)
A taste for eating you. So she could gauge out your eyes and tear off your arms. Cook them into soup and feed them for to your loved ones. That's what my mom did.
(looks at the tree)
Step-mom.
Miao Shan:
Oh no. Not like that at least. My father didn't eat me because he wanted to.
Boy:
And my father was tricked into it. Doesn't mean he ever stopped licking his lips when I eventually came back. He kept trying to out different bird broths after that. Chicken, Duck, goose, Peacock, raven. None ever came close to eating boy.
Miao Shan:
My father needed medicine.
Boy:
And who told him that?
Miao Shan:
(A beat)
I did.
Boy:
I thought you were dead at this point.
Miao Shan:
I came back.
Boy:
As a bird?
Miao Shan:
No.
Boy:
Well glad to know my story wasn't completely plagiarized!
Miao Shan:
It's not. Your Father and mother-
Boy:
Step-mother. Wicked step-mother.
Miao Shan:
Wicked stepmother. They did something awful to you. Something that can't be undone. Something that was not your choice.
My father needed medicine.
Boy:
Medicine? Is that what they're calling it now?
(Mocking)
'Do You have a cold honey? Oh let me just go down to the pharmacy and pick you up some ground-up arm bones!' 'Yes Dearie, maybe with a side of children's eyeballs!"
Miao Shan:
He needed the eyes and arms of someone without hatred.
Boy:
Without hatred? These are the people who murdered you. You're telling me you didn't hate them?
Miao Shan:
I did. A long time ago. When I was stuck in that palace, scrubbing the floors-
Boy:
Oh so now we have a Cinderella!
Miao Shan:
-Because I refused to marry-
Boy:
Reverse Cinderella.
Miao Shan:
For once in your life be silent!
Boy:
(Is silent)
Miao Shan:
Thank you.
I hated them. Him really. Always just him.
I wanted to enter the monastery. A simple life, no husbands, no fathers, no masters or attachments. Just complete freedom from the world. Guess I got that in the end.
Every night I dreamt that once I became learned enough, I'd be able to summon a wrathful Buddha. It would swallow my father whole and send him straight to the hell.
You know what happened when I died? You know where I went?
Boy:
Buddhists believe in hell?
Miao Shan:
Hell can be many things to many people. To some it can be a prison where you lock away everyone you don't want to deal with. To others, it's something you carry around with you. Nails hammered into your eyes that make the world crooked and cruel.
Boy:
The world is cruel.
Miao Shan:
The world is suffering. But it can also be a bitter medicine that helps you see the nails on your own eyes.
When I was down there amongst the demons, suffering for karma that was not my own, you know what I did? I brought my own song with me and turned that hell into a paradise. That's how I escaped. That's how I learned to see once again.
( Two hands reach up from Miao Shan's robes, wiping away the blood. Two more emerged from her sleeves and dozens more rise from behind her like a flower blossoming. She opens her eyes)
Boy:
What did you see?
Miao Shan:
I saw a sad, cowardly man. One raised who could never be happy because the mere existence of others threatened his fragile idea of control. I saw a man whose own bad karma was eating away at him from the inside out. And if things continued as they were, he was going to go to a far worse place than I.
But more so than that, I saw a man who could change. Someone who was finally desperate enough to taste the bitter medicine, and awaken.
No one is beyond redemption. It's just a matter of making them listen.
Boy:
So you chopped yourself up just for him? So much for living your own life.
Miao Shan:
I took control of my own life so I could use it to help people. Something that wouldn't be possible if I became the obedient wife and daughter decorating the corner.
I was able to heal my father because I rebelled against him. And since then, I've been able to heal many like him. All, suffering in their own personal corners of hell.
Boy:
You're not here because our stories are similar, are you?
Miao Shan:
You tell me. At the end of your story, did you save your step-mother?
Boy:
No.
Taps the Millstone embedded into the ground.
This is the medicine I gave her.
Miao Shan:
And your father?
Boy:
I gave him a golden chain. Should've wrapped it around his feet, would've stopped him from running off. He's eating rich boy soup now to his heart's content.
Or maybe he just got stabbed on the way to the goldsmith, who knows.
Miao Shan:
And your sister?
Boy:
Red shoes. She stayed around for a while. Finally got to test them out when she got sick of my singing.
She said something about how I didn't appreciate her before she left.
Miao Shan:
Did you?
Boy:
What would I have to appreciate her for? For bringing me back like this?
(Gestures to his winged arm)
I'm not a freak who chops myself up on purpose for some fancy glowing eyes and magic arms. I didn't choose this!
Miao Shan:
No, it was given to you. A gift by your sister and mother.
Boy:
(Looking at the tree)
Birth mother.
Miao Shan:
Hell can be many things to many people.
Boy:
You're wrong. This isn't Hell. I'm the hero of my story, you hear me? THIS ISN'T HELL!
Miao Shan:
I was the hero of my story too. The things that happened to you, they were horrible. And they leave scars. Some heal quickly. Others last. Sometimes they only last a lifetime, sometimes they last through our lives and rebirths. You can die and come back with the same old scars. But even then they can be healed. Not through time alone, but with effort. And medicine.
Boy:
They left. They all left. I'm the last one here.
Miao Shan:
That's why I'm here.
(MIAO SHAN holds BOY and BOTH sing togther)
Miao Shan
(Singing)
My mother, she killed me.
My father, he ate me.
tweet tweet, what a beautiful bird am I?
My sister, Marley
buried my bones
beneath the juniper tree.
Buried my bones
beneath the juniper tree.
Tweet, tweet. What beautiful bird am I?
Tweet, tweet. What a beautiful bird am I?
Boy:
(Singing)
(not singing at first but later together)
My sister, Marley
buried my bones
beneath the juniper tree.
Buried my bones
beneath the juniper tree.
Tweet, tweet. What beautiful bird am I?
Tweet, tweet. What a beautiful bird am I?
What a beautiful bird am I?
End.